Interview, part III: Coding the Interview Reports

This third and final part of the interview with our research team member is about his experiences working with Atlas.ti: The computer software we use to manage and analyze the massive amounts of qualitative data we gather through the telephone interviews. In Atlas.ti pieces of text can be categorized and labeled with so called “codes” so they can be retrieved later by the researcher, enabling him or her to quickly explore different topics and correlations between them.

Snapshot from the Atlas.ti software: a ‘coded’ interview.

Since half a year you have been coding in Atlas.ti. (software for qualitative data analysis) Can you tell us something about that?

It’s very interesting. We have a lot of data so it is good that we have Atlas.ti to help us with the management and the analysis. Coding is a very friendly way of understanding the data.

At the beginning working with Atlas.ti was difficult. For instance, I made my own codes for everything instead of using the codes from the shared code list. Another thing was that we encountered all kinds of technical problems, opening and installing the projects on our computers.

It was very helpful that Kimberley (our qualitative researcher from AIID Amsterdam) came to Tanzania last September, to explain more about the software and the coding. Before we were in darkness. Now we know each and every little bit, so at last we are getting somewhere.

At the beginning of the project it was difficult to imagine how everything would work. “We have a lot of data, but how are we going to do it? How are we going to analyze?” But currently I realize it, I feel it. It has become simple, different from the beginning.

Training in the use of the code list, September 2013 at IRDP, Dodoma.

When do you do your best coding?

I work on coding early in the morning, because for coding you need to be concentrated. I usually start coding around 4 am. After 5 am, I go to the office, and I’m already somewhere. In the office I do a little bit more coding. After the coding I spend 2 or 3 hours doing the telephone interviews with the respondents. After that I’m working on my dissertation proposal.

Some of our research team members diligently coding interviews in Atlas.ti, September 2013 at IRDP, Dodoma.

Have you tried to do any analysis yet?

Yes I’m always trying to do some simple analysis for my PhD research. For instance, exploring the issue of “lack of medicine in the health centre” by frequencies of word occurrences, etc. We are all trying to do simple analyses, and always checking what the Sikiliza data is telling us about the different objectives we have in our proposals. But, we need to go further with the analysis so we are hoping we will get the latest version of Atlas.ti which has more advanced tools for analysis than the version we are working with now.

What do you think the advantages of working with Atlas.ti are?

It allows you to summarize the whole project you are working on. I also like that it simplifies dealing with the details. For instance, if you want to understand the problem of students that are dropping out of school, you can get all the information you need very quickly by clicking on the code “students drop out”, which gives you all the quotations you are looking for. It helps us to grasp the real situation.

Interview, part II: The Phone Interviews"

In this second part of the interview we ask our research team member about his and his colleagues’ experiences with conducting telephone interviews with their respondents from all over Tanzania.

Our research team member has been calling his respondents once or twice every month over the past 2 years to ask them about problems and happenings in their villages. This intensive and enduring contact between interviewer and interviewee yields some very special stories to tell.

What are the things you like about doing interviews?

I like the fact that my respondents are very, very open with me. They feel free to tell me the truth. They share their pain or joy with me if something happens in their village.

Sometimes respondents ask us to solve a particular problem they have in their village. They seem to think we are able to solve all their problems. This can be a bit difficult because we are not in a position to help them out on these issues in a direct manner. So we try to explain to them that we are collecting and recording the information they give us in order to write reports which can be submitted to authorities and can be used for policy influence and policy making.

Are there things you dislike about doing the interviews?

Yes, sometimes you have to talk a lot, and with the introduction of the new interview protocol the interviews take up even more time. Depending on the issues in a village, a single telephone conversation can take over 40 minutes. This also has financial implications, particularly with the recently increased communication expense rates. Nevertheless, we are trying our best to manage.

Below a snapshot of the new interview protocol. In table one (above) a rough summary of the conversation is sketched by the interviewer. The interview is later written out in more detail in a second table, which is used for analysis.

How do the respondents react when you call them?

Before, people often found our frequent calls a disturbance, because they felt they didn’t benefit from it. Luckily we managed to solve this problem at the regional meetings.

Currently, all respondents like it when I call them. Sometimes they even call me themselves to tell me about new problems or events. Imagine that!

You call your respondents once or twice every month. How would you describe your relationship with them?

We talk a lot with our respondents, and therefore it feels like we have become friends. With some of our respondents we are really close. We talk about our personal lives and sometimes these respondents even tell us their family secrets or ask us for help with personal issues. With my favorite respondents I joke and laugh a lot.

In the course of the Sikiliza project you have collected a lot of stories about the villages and the problems that they face. Which of these stories did you find the most memorable?

I remember one very sad story from Katindi village about corruption in health services. A husband went to the hospital with his pregnant wife who was sick. At the hospital the couple was expected to pay the health staff a bribe in order to receive services, but they didn’t have any money. As a result, the staff refused to give the woman treatment and both the woman and the child died in the hospital.

During the interviews you have also gathered a lot of information about the different kinds of actions that people undertake in order to improve the situations in their villagers. Which story about public action did you find the most touching or thrilling?

There are so many stories, so it is hard to pick one. One story is about a troubled husband who one day sent his wife from home and then tried to kill his firstborn son. The neighbors heard the boy cry and came to rescue him. They took him to the hospital for treatment but it was already too late and the boy died of his injuries. The issue was reported at the police station, but the boy’s father bribed the police, and nothing happened. But, the villagers were very angry and they demanded their right, forcing the government to act against this person. As a result, the boy’s father was called into the police station and was taken to court.

After all the interviews you have done, do you think that people – by undertaking public actions - can really manage to bring on improvements in their villages?

Definitely! It is true that public action, especially community action, can help people achieve a lot. For instance, in one of our villages, the people had decided to contribute all their money to build a dispensary. And now all families are contributing 17.000 Tanzanian shilling per month to build a laboratory for the secondary schools. You see similar things happening in other villages as well, for example in Mrusi Street (Kigoma) where the villagers recently built a doctors house with money they collected among themselves. So you see, community action can help a lot. If all the villagers of Tanzania would have this kind of spirit, we could get very far as a country.

The power of community action as shown in the “Twaweza ni sisi” short movies series (http://www.youtube.com/user/Twaweza)

Do you think people find it difficult to actively demand help from the authorities?

I don’t think so. So many people are demanding to have dispensaries, schools, water facilities, etc., but the issue is that the government doesn’t respond to their demands, so the only solution is to do it yourself. Most of the projects you see happening are initiated, financed and carried out by the villagers themselves, because the government generally doesn’t respond positively and quickly enough to villagers’ requests. One of the other research team members is conducting interviews in Singida, where the people are facing water shortages and are demanding water infrastructure for their villages. The government keeps refusing to do anything about it, and now you see that the villagers have started to drill their own wells. People have to find their own solutions, otherwise the problems will remain.

Do you think villagers’ attempts to demand things from the authorities can be fruitful at all?

Yes, they can be successful. For instance, at Tabora, the people were demanding better water facilities. The government responded by installing water pipes. On the other hand, in Kayanga the people are actively demanding a dispensary, but to present nothing has been done there.

I think the chances of the authorities responding to villagers’ demands may be dependent on the area. If the political leaders of your village are from the opposition party, you can demand as much as you like, but nothing will happen. But if your village leaders are from the ruling party it is much more likely that the government will respond positively to your requests.

Interview, part I: The Regional Meetings

It’s the start of 2014, which means that it has already been 2 years since we started collecting the stories of 250 villages from all over Tanzania, by conducting interviews using mobile phones.
A lot has happened in the past 2 years, and what better way to inform you about our experiences with this special type of research methodology then through an extensive interview with one of our own research team members, who are calling and interviewing respondents as a daily practice.

So, for your education and entertainment, we have turned our research team member inside out with questions. We hope you’ll enjoy his stories and opinions about interviewing respondents, organizing respondent meetings and working with computer software for qualitative data analysis.

The interview will be published in a series of three separate blog posts, all comprising a different topic.

In this first blog post we have asked our research team member about the regional meetings that were held in august 2013. At these meetings, all the respondents participating in the Sikiliza project were called together at a regional level for a discussion about the project’s proceedings. During these meetings the respondents received a gift for rewarding and ensuring their continuing participation in the project.

Here's a picture of a regional meeting held in Dar.

What was the reason the regional meetings were organized?

Before the regional meetings we had problems reaching some of the respondents. Sometimes we called people and they wouldn’t pick up their phones or they would cut off the call. It was very difficult, because these respondents felt we were disturbing them; calling and calling and calling them, without giving them anything in return. They felt like we were using their time and didn’t see how they were benefitting from the project. So, we organized the regional meetings to meet and talk with them and to surprise them with a new phone!

Who organized the meetings?

We (the research team members working on the listening device) organized the regional meetings ourselves. When I called my respondents and told them to meet me at the district centre for the meeting, and that we would pay for their travel costs and accommodation, they became very happy. Traveling from their village to the district centre was a privilege to them.

Did you encounter any problems whilst trying to organize the meetings?

Yes, we had some problems trying to reach all the respondents, because some of them live in very remote areas. We tried to solve this by sending those respondents a text message a couple of days in advance, informing them that we were coming over for the meeting and asking them to “beep my phone” as soon as they had network-access. After I’d received a beep, I’d call them back and arrange the appointment with them. The network is always a difficulty, it’s very problematic.

Another problem is that it took up a lot of our time to travel to all the different districts for the meetings. For instance, I had to travel from Dodoma to Kigoma and then from Kigoma to Sumbawanga, which took up to 3 days.

Can you describe the regional meetings’ proceedings?

At the regional meetings we met the respondents and talked about the challenges they are having. We asked them what they think about the program, and how they think it is going so far. We had drinks together and I gave them their new phones. During the meetings we also gave the respondents a questionnaire which they filled in and returned to us. I think we spent about 1 to 1,5 hour with them.

Here you can see respondents fill in the questionnaires

Can you tell me more about the benefits of the regional meetings?

I think after the regional meetings more respondents are happy. They are giving us feedback. For instance, I went to Shinyanga and found they responded very positively. Some respondents said: “At least now you are here and we can ask you some questions!” They want personal contact, you see. And this personal contact helped us a lot. We gathered a lot of information during the regional meetings, and currently we have good response (to calls) from them!

Before the regional meetings respondents were asking us for things, for example money or solar power and solar chargers, and were telling us: “Why are you calling us all the time and using our time, while we don’t gain anything from it?” You have to keep the respondents happy, otherwise you don’t get the information you need. This is a challenge though, because it is true that we are always calling and calling them, but after the regional meetings the respondents have become happy and this has changed. We have good contact with the respondents now. It really is different from the beginning.

The regional meeting even resulted in me finding new respondents for villages where we lost contact with the initial respondent, for example Saku in Shinyanga, or where we haven’t been able to find a respondent before. So, I am now up to 59 respondents!